


Vows

by collectingnames



Series: My Miracle (fjorclay collection) [10]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Ceremony, Fluff, M/M, Marriage, Rituals, Secret Marriage, Spontaneous Marriage, The Menagerie, fjord takes his paladin oath, injury mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collectingnames/pseuds/collectingnames
Summary: Having performed the ritual at the Menagerie to heal the Savalirwood the Nein take advantage of the lull for Fjord to take his paladin oath in a hub of the Wildmother's power.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Fjord
Series: My Miracle (fjorclay collection) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1483838
Comments: 4
Kudos: 111





	Vows

**Author's Note:**

> I assume someone lives at the Menagerie so just assume that's who they're staying with. Fjord's oath is the oath of the ancients, I know they're called oaths and not vows but for the purposes of this, I'm calling it a vow. The vow is the tenants of the oath slightly modified for the call-and-response format. This is unrepentantly cheesy, have fun, fjorclay 2020

“So, a paladin vow? Did you not already do that when you were in the kelp cocoon?” Caleb asked casually while leafing through his book at the breakfast table.

“I mean, well, I suppose but I don’t know. I thought having a proper ritual would make it feel more, permanent. I don’t know. That’s not the word. Just,” Fjord looked over at Caduceus hoping he could fill in, “I mean, we’re here. At the Menagerie, a hub of the Wildmother’s power. The corruption of the Savalier Woods is healed now. Why not take this lull? When are we gonna find another place like this anytime soon?”

“That’s great but I don’t think he was looking for an essay,” Nott took a large bite out of her bacon, reading over Caleb’s shoulder.

“Well, I mean, you  _ promised _ yourself, so I guess this would be saying ‘yeah I mean it,'" Beau tried to pick out what he meant from his anxious rambling.

"Yeah, that sounds right," he nodded and went to take another sip from his still-steaming mug.

Yasha spoke up, a knowingness in her eyes, "So,  _ vows _ ?"

Jester, thankfully, didn’t say anything but she punctuated Yasha with a waggle of her brow.

Despite being gone for the entire beginning of their relationship she hadn't needed much of any explanation. She could see through them. Not that their relationship was a secret within the group. Everyone knew, it just rarely elicited conversation anymore. There would be an occasional grumble when one of them got sappy but that was usually the extent of it. 

It took Fjord a second to keep himself from choking on his drink, “Yes,  _ vows _ , that’s a paladin thing, if I’m not mistaken.”

“What kind of vow?” Caduceus smiled at him over his shoulder where he was standing at the sink cleaning up breakfast.

“There’s a nature one, right? That feels appropriate,” he couldn’t help but blush harder.

“Hm, well, paladins serve gods and there are gods of  _ everything  _ so I guess that means there would  **have** to be a nature one,” Jester mused, resting her head on Yasha’s shoulder.

Caleb kept flipping through his book, “Mm, I am sure you could find records of some such vow. And if not, why not write your own?”

“I could always do that,” Fjord’s gaze held Caduceus’s for a second more than he’d meant to.

It took a few more days to finish pulling together the slap-dash preparations. All they knew was that it would be after nightfall and at the same pool where they’d done the ritual with the residuum when the Menagerie would be lit up in a glorious display of bioluminescence. Aside from that, they were going to play it all by ear.

Beau leaned in the doorway watching him clean his sword, “So, do you want us to come with you? For this whole ceremony thing?”

“No,” he said a little too fast, “just ‘Duceus. Sorry. It’s just, he’s the only other follower of the Wildmother around here so he’s ‘officiating’ or whatever.”

“Okay, just checking. You seem nervous, everything okay?” She watched him as he moved on and worked on polishing his armor to a brand-new shine.

“One of his siblings is a paladin of the Wildmother. He said he would look through the things of his he brought from home, see if he has any record of it. If he can’t he’s just going to patch together what he remembers of it,” he didn’t look up from his task.

“Fjord?”

“What?” He struggled with one of the barnacles that had started growing on his armor now since he started following the Wildmother.

“You seem a little stuck in your own head, dude. It’s gonna be fine. You’re just reciting some stuff back and forth at each other. You’ve got this,” she reassured him, “Although getting the barnacles off might be a bit of a lost cause by now. Unless you  _ really _ wanna put holes in your armor.”

He stopped and regarded the crest of barnacles growing up over the pauldron, “You’re right. I’m just, excited? This is all so much.”

She gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder, “I’m happy for you man, you got this.”

He set aside his armor, “Thank you.”

Still, there was one more thing he wanted to ask. Which is how he found himself knocking on the door to the room Beau, Jester, and Yasha were all sharing. But it was Yasha specifically he needed to talk to. If you handed him a calendar and asked him to point out the date when he decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Caduceus, he wouldn’t have been able to tell you. But he thought about it often enough, when they were lying in bed together drifting off to sleep, in battle, helping him cook, when he watched him make tea, when they communed together. He just couldn’t imagine himself apart from Caduceus anymore.

Yasha opened the door, “Oh, hello Fjord. Do you need something?”

“Can I come in? I need to ask you something,” he peeked over her shoulder to see if anyone else was with her.

She stepped aside and closed the door behind him, “What is it?”

“I,” he thought about it for a moment, “I love Caduceus.”

“Yes, I know that, Fjord. That’s not a question,” she replied.

He stared squarely down at his feet and closed his eyes, “How do you know when you never want to be without someone again?”

“Probably about the same time you start asking yourself that. What are you going to do?” She leaned back against the wall and waited for his answer.

“I don’t know. I’m just worried that I’m moving too fast. I don’t even know what his family does, if they use rings or what. Just, I don’t _plan_ on doing anything just yet but I wanted to get a second opinion,” he finally looked back up.

“Just don’t wait too long, we get into a lot of shit.”

He started to leave, “Thank you.”

She grabbed his shoulder as he left, “Hey, good look with your vow tonight. I’m sure it’ll all go well.”

With night came the gentle blue-green glow of bioluminescence that lit up the Menagerie. The ancient well-walked paths led directly to the pool and Fjord stared down it, contemplating what waited at the end of it. He fixed the holy symbol pinning his cloak over his shoulders, admired how the swirling crystal caught the light. Caduceus waited for him a little further down the path. His friends at his back.

“Are you coming?” Caduceus called from down the path.

He finally got his feet to move, “Coming.”

Caduceus started talking again once they were out of earshot from the others, “Do you remember the vows?”

“Mhm,” he kept his gaze focused on the path ahead, reciting them over again in his head so he wouldn’t forget.

“Nervous?”

He chuckled, “You could say that.”

Caduceus took his hand in his own, gave him a reassuring squeeze, “It’s gonna be okay. It shouldn’t take too long.”

A little spark of disappointment fluttered to life in his chest at that, “Mhm. I really am excited though. Nervous but still excited.”

The path opened up into the clearing where the pool was, it still had a slight shimmer to the surface from where they’d performed the ritual with residuum, almost opalescent. Glowing moss and insects lit up the clearing in a wash of blue-green that made Caduceus look especially ethereal. The calls of the Menagerie’s strange wildlife distantly surrounded them, but not close enough to feel any sense of danger. The canopy above almost blocked out the sky, save a handful of stars.

Caduceus gestured to the pool's edge, "Can you kneel there for me? Just one knee is fine."

He summoned the StarRazor to his hand and got down on one knee facing Caduceus, both hands on the hilt, "Is this good?"

“Mhm.”

_ I want to spend the rest of my life with you. _

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Kindle the light," 

The force of Caduceus's presence got him to focus, "Through my acts of mercy, kindness, and forgiveness, I will kindle the light of hope in the world, beating back despair."

Caduceus nodded and continued, "Shelter the light."

"Where there is good, beauty, love, and laughter in the world I will stand against the wickedness that would swallow it. Where life flourishes, I will stand against the forces that would render it barren."  _ You are my light.  _

"Preserve your own light,” something shifted in Caduceus’s face.

“I will delight in song and laughter, in beauty and art. If I allow the light to die in my own heart, I cannot preserve it in the world,” he brought his gaze up to meet Caduceus’s, a new tension in the air between them.

Caduceus runs a hand through his hair, his eyes crinkling up at the corners as he smiles down at him, “Be the light.”

He slowly starts to rise to his feet, taking Caduceus’s hand, “I will be a glorious beacon for all who live in despair. I will let the light of my joy and courage shine forth in all my deeds.”

There’s a beat where he’s stock still, neither of them moving. He couldn’t pull himself out of the moment even if he tried. The tension hangs heavy between them, almost weighing them down. He couldn’t help but notice how Caduceus’s lips were slightly parted, the anticipation in his eyes when he looked at him.

He surged up to meet him in a kiss, threading his fingers into his hair to hold him even closer. He dispelled the StarRazor so he could have both hands free to hold him. Caduceus responded eagerly in kind, holding his face in both hands.

He pulled away a little, enough to speak, “So… are we?”

“I would hope so,” Caduceus smiled against his lips.

“Isn’t there? There’s a spell you can do, right?” It took all of his focus to not just keep kissing him.

Caduceus chuckled, “Yes, yes there’s a spell for that.”

“Wait, do you have it prepared?” 

Caduceus blushed, just visible through the thin dusting of fur on his face and pulled a small pouch from his pocket, “I uh, I’ve had it prepared for a little while now.”

“What?”

He opened up the pouch to show him the powdered silver inside, “I’ve been thinking about it, but I wasn’t sure if you would want to right now.”

He kissed him again, “Caddy I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. Well, maybe not this specifically but you know what I mean.”

Caduceus laughed, that wonderful warm rumble of a laugh, “It takes an hour to cast.”

“Then we better get started. What do you do with the silver?” Fjord asked.

Caduceus poured out about half of it into his hand, “Do you remember back in Nicodranas when Caleb drew circles to connect Nott and her family when he was writing the teleportation circle? That’s not too far off from this version of the spell.”

“So we draw circles around each other?”

“No, not quite. I was thinking we could draw a swirl on the ground with the silver, each of us starts at the other end, we meet in the middle?” He suggested.

“What do we do in the middle?”

“It’s a touch-based spell,” he grabbed him by his cloak and kissed him one more time before walking off to start the design.

He felt his face warm with blush as Caduceus walked off. After a minute or so watching him so as to get a better idea of where he should start his end of the swirl, he took up a spot in front of the pool. Carefully, he let the powdered silver slip from his hand and onto the grass. A part of him wanted to glance over and look at Caduceus but something in him told him to wait. Not to look until the spell ended, well, until the spell was cast. Regardless, his thoughts raced excitedly, everything just a rush.  _ Caduceus wanted this too, had kept the spell prepared just in case, kept the fucking material components on him. How many battles had they been in with that silver burning in his pocket? Probably for about as long as he started wondering if the Clays do rings or something else. _

Caduceus spoke up from somewhere behind him, still working on his portion of the swirl, “Fjord?”

“Yes, Caduceus?” He felt the temptation to look up at him but kept his eyes focused on the task in front of him.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Of course.”

“I wanted to say thank you. For uh-,” he stumbled on his words.

He stopped pouring out the silver for a moment, “You don’t need to thank me for anything.”

“I need to say this,” Caduceus sounded a lot closer now, like he was talking into his ear.

“Okay,” he snapped himself out of it and kept pouring the silver.

“I don’t feel alone with you. It’s so easy to feel lonely. Not with you though,” there was a long pause, “Thank you, Fjord.”

He could tell they were getting closer, Caduceus probably at his back right now, “Can I say something?”

“It would only be fair,” there was a smile in his voice.

“Thank you for being my home. I love you. I love you so much, ‘Duceus,” he spoke softly, he felt Caduceus close at his back.

He stopped when he felt himself bump into Caduceus’s back. He slowly turned and stood, so close to each other now. 

Caduceus got distracted for a split second as a mote of beautiful blue-green light floated around him, its light dancing off his face and god-fucking-dammit if he wasn’t the most beautiful person he had or would ever see. He snapped out of it and took his hands, muttering the spell’s incantation under his breath. The silver powder glowed as he continued the incantation.

Warmth coursed through him as Caduceus stopped and the spell took hold. So sudden it knocked the air out of his lungs. For a moment he could have sworn that he could feel what Caduceus was feeling , overwhelmed by the two-fold sensations. It passed almost as soon as he noticed it. Caduceus leaned in and met him in another kiss.

The silver swirling around them ignited into brilliant white light and the warmth that had coursed through him a moment before now filled the air all round them. It reminded him of the Wildmother’s presence, far stronger than he’d ever felt it before. What he imagined it would be like if she were actually here.  He clutched onto the lapels of Caduceus’s jacket, trying to hold him as close as he could. He deepened the kiss as the need to be close hit him like a wave knocking him off his feet. It was almost desperate how badly he needed to feel close to him.

He didn’t let go but eventually, they broke away and took a moment to just stare at each other . Then he noticed. Where there had been plain grass before, flowers grew wildly around them following the path of the silver. Flowers that probably shouldn’t be able to take in this soil.  Red, white, and pink camellias and carnations, honeysuckle, hydrangea, lotus, gardenia, king protea, maybe more but he couldn’t tell with how haphazard and crowded they all grew up from the swirl, each fighting to be the most vibrant and bold.

Caduceus took one of the proteas and tucked it behind Fjord’s ear, “Hey.”

He chuckled, “Hey.”

“They’re probably wondering what’s taking us so long by now,” he said as he lazily carded his fingers through Fjord’s hair.

“Probably,” he leaned into his touch.

“Do you want to tell them?”

He thought about it, “Let’s give it a few days. Just, I don’t know. This sort of just happened. I want a few days to enjoy it, just us .”

“Three?” He asked with a note of eagerness in his voice.

“Sounds good,” he took his other hand before starting back down the path.

“Gods, we’re  _ married _ , you’re my  _ husband _ ,”  Caduceus sounded downright giddy.

“I sure am! Oh man, do you think your family is going to want a ceremony once we catch up with them?”

“Oh definitely, but don’t worry, you’ll love it,” he gave him a cheesy grin, “It’s kind of cheesy, romantic, very much your speed.”

He blushed a little at that but couldn’t hide his grin when he gave him a light shove, “Stop that. Do you want a ring?”

“Mm, not really but if you want one I think it would be nice if we were matching.”

Nott screeched from the end of the path, apparently in earshot but still out of sight, “ **_Are you guys talking about rings?_ ** ”

-2 Days Later-

Facing down the pack of abyssal creatures in front of them, Caduceus grabbed his arm and touched the StarRazor, a flash of radiant energy pulsing from it, “Stay close to me.”

He nodded in understanding, recalling the details of the spell’s effects, taking Cad’s hand in his and squeezing it as the creatures descended on them.

Throughout the entire fight, the two of them barely got a scratch on them. Blows that should have hit simply glanced off their armor or only grazed them. And the ones that should have outright shredded their breastplates missed. 

They stood there holding each other’s hands white-knuckled and trying to catch their breath with the fight’s end. Fjord put a hand to Caduceus’s shoulder to heal him where a claw had met its mark. He relieved a little bit of that nervous energy with a laugh, resting his forehead against Cad’s.

“Is it just me or are Fjord and Cad harder to hit lately?” Beau mused to herself, stretching as Jester healed a wound on her side.

“Call it luck, I guess,” Fjord replied.

Caduceus chuckled, “ _ Luck _ .”

They couldn’t help but smile knowingly at each other.

  
  
  



End file.
